BGI Final Report - Economic Growth - usaid

for topical discussions or to present concepts and papers developed outside of BGI. Expertpanel forums and roundtable discussions engaged other international donors and practitioners.All international conferences and workshops were collaborative efforts with host Missions andother USAID activities. This subsection highlights three international conferences andworkshops offered.Regional Best Practices WorkshopIn June 2008, BGI partnered with theEurope and Eurasia Bureau’s RegionalCompetitiveness Initiative to host theCaucasus Regional Best PracticeWorkshop. The event brought togetherexperts, implementers and the privatesector to explore emerging themes inenterprise development in the region:BDS, ICT, tourism and prospects forregional integration and cooperation.Experts and presenters were drawn fromthe intended audience and includedprivate sector business and associationswhen feasible. BGI gathered more than200 participants from Europe and Eurasiaand attracted USAID/Washingtonspecialists and leading experts in tourism and ICT.Figure 2: Regional Best Practice Workshop, Armenia, 2008Innovation and Enterprise Development ConferenceIn April 2009, USAID/Jordan and BGI conducted a joint, two-day workshop and conference forUSAID staff and personnel. Sessions built upon on the participant’s experience and expandedon the value-chain training they received in 2008. The training was largely designed aroundlearning elements of the MEASURE tool and helped participants better interpret economicindicators and appreciate the role of facilitation and value-chain mapping.The conference engaged other donors, the private sector and universities in a similar format tothe Regional Best Practices Workshop. The event attracted leading figures and presenters fromthe region who addressed green investment, tourism, access to finance and developing publicprivate-sector partnerships.Enterprise Development CourseBGI offered a one-week training course based on its research and experience providing Missionsupport and in collaboration with the Asia and Middle East Bureau and the Knowledge-DrivenMicroenterprise Development (KDMD) project. The target audience was new USAID staff andForeign Service Nationals and featured approximately 40 participants with varied levels of skillsand knowledge of enterprise development. Sessions were recorded by the KDMD project forfuture use on-line.The objective of the course, held in Bangkok, was to strengthen participant’s ability tounderstand key concepts of enterprise development and improve impact and results bystrengthening their ability to design, manage and implement programs. The course usedtraditional elements of USAID enterprise development training, including learning activities, casestudies, presentations by development experts and site visits, e.g., the Small and Medium12